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Monday, June 11, 2012

This past Christmas of 2011 the entire Reed family got together in Atlanta, all 21 of us. While we were there we got professional pictures taken, some posed shots and some candid. This picture of Brandon and Grandpa By was one of those rare candid shots that is just perfection.

The poem reads

A boy needs his Grandpa...
For man-to-man talks,
To go hand in hand
on companionable walks.

To fix up his toys
when they no longer go,
To tell him the things
little boys want to know

A boy needs his grandpa...
To sit on his lap
And if no one is looking
They take a wee nap.

As time goes on slowly
Their bond still grows
Each smiling gently
At something only they know.

I found the poem on-line by an unknown author, but change some of it to make it fit these two better.

I had a completely different layout in mind when i first started creating this one. I had a wooden clock, a metal key, and a metal key hole glued down to the layout when I got the epiphany to use the poem in word strips instead. I loved the look of the strips, it made the layout look more cohesive and not so disjointed, but i had already glued on the other parts, and when I pulled them off the paper pulled off with it, leaving huge gaps, it looked awful. So I took gesso and smeared on on top of the "holes" and then smeared black distress paint and black perfect pearls over the gesso. I did this in more than just the parts of the holes, I also did it other random places to it did not look like i had made a mistake.

As they say there are no mistakes in scrapbooking, just happy accidents. I love the final look of this layout a lot more than I did before i changed it!!

I loved these resin edges by Prima, but they were just not the correct color. I took Tattered angels Shimmer paint and painted over the entire edges, it paint is so thin that it just stuck to the inset of the edge and not the tops. The colors are so much better for this layout!!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

This past Easter (2012) the boys had a number of egg hunts. The first was just Brandon with some mommy friends, then Brandon again at his school, then the last 4 the boys had together. On Good Friday we had two hunts, the first was with my First Colony Moms group. We meet at the Sugar Lakes playground, spread over 500 eggs all around the grassy area, and then let the kids just go for it. The largest picture is of the boys opening their eggs after that hunt. I could not get a single good action shot of the hunt they were moving so fast. The second hunt for the day was at Grandma Marty's house with their cousin Preston. We drove straight from the FCM hunt out to Chappel Hill and spent the day. The two smaller pictures are of the boys hunting for their eggs that Grandpa By hid (he hides them really well)!!

I used the wonderful Kit from Scrapbook Kits With a Difference to create my layout. In this kit were wonderful papers from Crate Paper and tons of fun embellishments. So with this kit I went in a different direction for colors and design for an Easter LO, I sometimes get bored of the same old pastel colors for our Easter pictures. I also tried something a bit different for the border around the grid of pictures, I used faux stitching (just a straight pen line) and rub-ons to frame the pictures and papers.

I hope you can pop on by to Frosted Designs to play along with their stitching challenge this week. I did something a bit different from the norm of faux stitching, i also used rub-ons that are not the typical look for stitching, I hope you can try it out!!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

At Brandon's school this past 2011-2012 year his teachers took this wonderful picture of him outside in the playground. I just feel in love with it, and I was waiting for the best moment of inspiration to use it in a layout. With a sketch from Scrapbook Kits with a Difference and papers from Momenta, I could not go wrong!!

I played with the hard and soft of the colors and textures here. I love flowers, but this picture needed some hard edge to it as my little one is not much of a baby anymore, he is becoming a "BOY" as he calls it. So I played with the floral for a baby and the hard edge of metal for a boy, so under the vines I used a chain.

I also used gears surrounding the page, but added a softness with all the distressing and layers.

I then added a key and a lock to show he holds he key to my heart my sweet little Brandon!!

The papers have a wonderful weight, perfect for distressing and layering, the the stickers are so sturdy and fun that it just works with the colors of the papers!! I hope you try them out soon!!

Friday, June 1, 2012

I went to a friend's wedding and they had this wonderful little photo booth to take pictures of yourself for the bride and groom. You could wear funny hats, glasses, and other fun items to make it fun, but my husband and I just went in and got pictures of the two of us. We got to take the little pictures home (4 in total on a 4x6 sheet) and then the bride and groom got a book with all the picture from the night later on. I loved the pictures, well all but one, so I of course had to scrap them. I love one of them so much, that I enlarged it and used it two times in the layout - a really easy way to enhance a photo but still use the photo frame/booth effect.

I have a hard time getting more than 1-2 pictures into a layout, I feel it clutters the effect of what I like to do, which is embellish with flowers and bling!! So in this layout I achieved 4 pictures because 3 of them are small, I took the best of the small pictures and enlarged it, but i kept the balance of the layout by also keeping the same picture small. it would look of balance and odd if I only used 2 pictures in the photo strip below the large photo.

I created this layout for Frosted Designs for their punch challenge - so head on over and play along. I did a very simple border punch on this layout, but I added a little bling to the tips for a bit of added fun!!

I did not want to clutter up my layout too much, as the center piece is my painted doily. I used a gold paint, then used perfect pearls to enhance the "flowers" around the edges of the doily - the doily is a foam sticker made by Pink Paislee.

I also took a Prima Vine with light link flowers and spruced it up a bit by adding in black rose buds and anchoring the vine to the page with 2 larger complementary colored flowers. I then added some fun bling swirls to help tie in the swirls in the rest of the layout.

Alexa

FTC Notice:

I am blessed to work in an industry I love. As a project designer and instructor I am often given products to work with. Some of the products I work with have been given to me by companies I design for or sold to me at a discounted rate. While this in no way controls my content (I only use and blog what I love) the government says I have to tell you that I might have gotten some things for free.

About Me

I am a mother of 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls). I have been scrapping since 2007, mostly to scrap my oldest child's baby book and it took off from there. I love to create and to find new ideas.
erinkreed@gmail.com